


Planet Bound

by Pixilatedcorgi



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Firefly
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 05:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10655796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixilatedcorgi/pseuds/Pixilatedcorgi
Summary: Vox Machina, a family of misfits travelling the stars. One night of drinking leads to the engine all but exploding and the ship going dark. They soon learn that their floating home is slowly falling into the nearby planet, and they have mere hours to live. Can the crew fix the engines in time or will they burn.





	1. Welcome Home

A band of “adventurers” walk begrudgingly towards their ship. It lies a few meters ahead, a Chang’e class starship, several stories high and even more wide. It's a bit lopsided to make room for the shuttle bay and as a whole it resembles an oversized brick. But this brick serves as the transportation as well as home for its occupants. The “adventurers” stand out significantly on any planet they visit. One is an extremely short man with a purple coat and beret and long brown hair tied off in the back. He is being carried by an unnaturally tall and muscular man with a black beard on his chin and tattoos covering his scalp rather than hair. The tattoos cover his arms and extend down his unclothed chest until they disappear beneath his baggy pants and bullet stocked belts. Next to the pair is a man with white hair and round glasses. He wears a white button up shirt that would be nice were it not covered in oil, and vest and tie of a similar description. Goggles hang around his neck and black gloves are tucked into the hem of his pants rather than adorning his hands. Behind them, side by side, is a man and a woman with matching long, dark hair and dark eyes. The woman has her hair separated into numerous thin braids which have then been braided together and then again and again into a single complex braid that falls over her shoulder. She wears a dark blue qipao shirt and has a large sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. The mans hair is braided across the sides of his head and tied together in the back while the rest is left to hang freely below his shoulders. He wears a black changshan shirt which is covered by a long black coat. Tailing behind the girl is a massive brown dog that reaches nearly to her shoulder when on all fours. They all lumber to their ship with sweat on their faces and dirt on their clothes, stretching to ease their aching muscles and bones. The short man pulls a transmitter from his coat pocket and presses the large button on its side. 

“Keyleth, open the cargo bay doors, would you?” He says with an air of false gratitude. 

“Right on it.” A voice responds through the speakers. They reach the large doors and lean on the hull of the ship, doing their best not to collapse before they get inside. 

“Scanlan, why am I carrying you again?” The tall man asks to the small one on his shoulder. 

“Because, Grog, I'm the captain.” He explains simply and haughtily. 

“You're not really the captain though. We have equal influence in our decisions.” The white haired man muses. 

“Exactly, Percy. He's only getting carried because he's a lazy wonang fei.” The woman prods. 

“Don't start with me, Vex. I've had a long day.” 

“Feihua! We all have. None of us got a free ride!” The long haired man joins. 

“Vax, you know I've only got little legs! I didn't wanna run to keep up with you guys!”   
Before the argument can continue the bay doors begin to scrape open and reveal the ship's interior. They all reflexively sigh with delight with the prospect of their beds waiting inside. Grog shrugs Scanlan off of his shoulder and sets him down on the floor. They all walk into their ship with new energy. Waiting just inside by the doors is a woman with fiery orange hair and a long sundress. Decorating her long hair is a shiny metal wreath that starts just above her hairline and covers the most of her forehead, stretching across her face and disappearing behind her ears. Once they are inside she flips a switch and the doors start creaking closed. 

“I really need to fix those.” Percy mutters, watching the doors crawl shut at an inconsistent pace and consistent unhealthy scratching. The monstrous dog runs in and jumps up onto the red head, paws resting on her shoulders, and licks her face in greetings. 

“Hey there, Trinket!” She says, smiling and scratching his ears. She looks around the behemoth at the tired party outside the hangar doors. 

“Wow, you guys look terrible.” She says, looking over the group. They all roll their eyes and walk into the ship. 

“I feel it, darling.” Vex responds, patting her arm as she walks by. 

“Good to see you too, Kiki.” Vax says, his words dripping with sarcasm despite the grin on his face. 

“There's some food waiting for you in the dining room.” Keyleth informs as she walks beside them. 

“No offence, but I'd much rather get some sleep than some food.” Vax drawls. 

“I think you'll change your mind when you see the spread.” Keyleth insists. The group shrugs her off, dead set on going to their bunks. 

“We’ve got a ton of booze for us waiting. I brewed some of it myself.” She adds. They stop in their tracks and let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan, but still change their path up to the dining room. When they climb all the way up they are met with a beautiful sight. The table and counters are lined with large plates of home cooked comfort food. Bowls of soups, stew, noodles, fried vegetables, meats, rolls, cookies, cakes, even some fondue. The food before them has clearly been made from scratch rather than canned, dehydrated, or processed beyond recognition. The fresh food is a delicacy that the group rarely experiences in space. The dishes are being made to look nice by a short woman with short blonde hair and a scar across her eye. She wears a light blue shirt under her ever present gray body armor and what hair she has that's long enough is braided back into a small bun behind her head. The woman notices her guests and brightens up, smiles infecting her friends immediately. 

“Welcome back, guys! Keyleth and I spent the last few hours whipping up some dinner for you all.” She tells, rushing over to give hugs to each and every one of them. They all graciously accept the hugs, most kneeling down to hug her properly, but Grog picks her up and spins her around with joy. 

“Pike, buddy! You're the best!” He shouts, setting her down with a thud. 

“I know I am.” She smiles. The pleasantries don't last long as the group grab plates and stack them high with the delicacies. Vex piles a plate with tender boiled meats and puts it onto the floor for trinket to devour. 

“Pickle, where did you find all this food?” Vax asks, having already drained half a glass of moonshine. 

“Kiki and I went into town soon after you left, we wanted to surprise you!” She explains, digging into some rolls herself. 

“This is quite the pick me up. Thank you girls so much.” Percy says, eating his food slower than the others but with a similar hunger. 

“Yeah, looks like you guys earned it.” Keyleth says, referring to their dirty and tired forms.

“How did the job go, anyways?” The party groans and digs into their food with more fervor. 

“It didn't.” Percy says, simply. 

“What! What do you mean?” Keyleth asks. 

“The folks that we were meant to trade with got shot up by raiders,” Vax explains with a sigh. “We were lucky to get out of there without a scratch, but we're gonna have to find new buyers for these zuzhou engine parts.”

“Gaisi, that's rough. Well, all we can do now is move on. Lets eat up and get to bed.” Pike suggests. Everyone mutters in agreement and abandons conversation to focus on their meals. One by one everyone washes their dishes and heads off to bed, all but for Vex and Percy who stay up a bit longer to get the ship flying. Once Vex gets them off of the planet Paquin, out of its atmosphere, and sets all the autopilot functions she takes a stop by the engine room, first grabbing two mason jars full of rum. She sees Percy sitting in the mini cot at his desk, tinkering with his pistol. He apparently went straight from running the diagnostics to his personal projects.

“Percy, dear.” She says, catching his attention without drawing his eyes from his task. He waves her over with one hand and picks up a screwdriver with the other. She saunters into the room and leans back against his desk, setting one cup on his desk and taking a sip from the other. He grabs the cup without looking away from his task and takes a swig, shivering when it hits the back of his throat. 

“Tell me you won't stay up all night working, will you? We all need our rest, you most of all I'd think.” Vex interrupts. 

“I'll be alright. I'll get to bed soon, once I'm finished working. After the exciting day we've had my mind is far too active to rest.” He takes a piece off of his gun and begins inspecting it for modifications he could make. Vex nods, satisfied, and leans down to kiss the top of his head. At the touch he finally looks up at her with a whisper of a smirk. She raises her glass and he raises his, toasting it against hers. He takes another sip while she downs hers and slams it down on the desk with barely a cough. 

“Goodnight, Percival.” She says with a wink as she walks away. 

“Goodnight, Vex’ahlia.”   
Vex leaves the engine room and heads back to the crew quarters, sliding open the opaque glass door to her and her brothers room. When she walks in she attempts to flick the lights on before remembering the rooms lights had gone out a few days ago. She squints in the dark to see her brother dead asleep on the top bunk and Trinket curled on the one below it. She sighs exasperatedly and mutters. 

“Huaidan ge pi.” She rolls her eyes and climbs into the bottom bunk, not wanting to waste her energy with waking him up and convincing him to switch with or without force. She nudges Trinket to allow herself room on the bed and he happily makes room, resting his head on her stomach once she is settles. Despite being on the less favorable bunk she is asleep within seconds due to the heat and soft fur of her companion.


	2. Early Birds

The next morning, Vex makes sure to wake up early just to have the pleasure of pulling her brother from his sleep. He groans and moans until she physically removes him from the bunk, sending him toppling to the floor.  
“Shenme cao! What was that for?” He asks, rubbing his sore back.  
“For sleeping in my bunk.” She says, hands on her hips.  
“It's my bunk!” He retorts, lifting himself to his feet. She rolls her eyes and saunters out to the dining room.  
“It's our turn to make breakfast today.” She tells him over her shoulder. He groans and follows her to share their morning duties. They heat up some of the left-overs from last night and set the table as the rest of the crew filters in. Pike and Keyleth join first since they didn't need as much sleep as the rest, and Grog and Scanlan join about halfway into the meal as they were heavy sleepers to begin with. If the food was unevenly cooked or slightly chewier than it was previously no one says anything, as it was still superior to their normal rations. As they eat they idly chat about about their plans for the day and the events of the previous.  
“I'd say our best bet for selling the engine parts would be Greenleaf. They're very close and have a lot of prospective buyers as well as friends.” Vax suggests.  
“True. I bet Zarah would be happy to take them off our hands.” Vex muses, idly scratching Trinkets head on her lap.  
“It feels like we haven't been to Greenleaf in ages. It'll be nice to be back.” Keyleth says.  
“Excited to see Kash, darling?” Vex teases. Keyleth opens her mouth to retort but freezes, at a loss for what to say. She puffs up her cheeks in a frustrated face and instead throws a roll at Vex, who catches it with a smile and feeds it to her oversized lap dog.  
“We're hopeless romantics, Kiki. It's our curse.” Scanlan joins.  
“Shut up!” Keyleth stutters, blush obvious on her face. She abandons the conversation by stuffing her face with noodles. The table laughs at her awkward display and stops teasing her to finish their meals. Vex heads to the sink to wash her dishes but is soon trapped there by her friends depositing their dishes by her side with off-handed thanks. She sighs and begins cleaning their dishes as well. Pike pulls up a stool and helps Vex clean the plates.  
“Thank you, dear.” Vex says, handing her a plate to dry. Pike smiles and accepts it.  
“Vex, have you seen Percy yet today?” She asks.  
“No, I haven't. Are you worried?”  
“I wouldn't say worried, but he doesn't usually miss breakfast.”  
“You're right. I think I know where he is.” Vex mutters. With the help of Pike they get the dishes cleaned and put away quickly. Vex then makes her way towards the engine room, stopping Keyleth on the way and asking her to check in on the auto pilot. In the engine room Vex finds Percy exactly where she had thought, slumped on his desk with a half finished project by his head. She shakes her head and gently rouses him from his sleep. He wakes with a start, his glasses falling from his face as he bolts up.  
“Yes, hello?” He says on instinct. As he wakes he rubs the sleep from his eyes and takes account of his surroundings. He looks to the hand on his shoulder, then up at Vex, then down to the clutter on his desk, lastly down to his messy shirt from the day before.  
“You missed breakfast.” Vex informs. Percy rubs his hand across his face and groans.  
“How long was I asleep?”  
“I'd say near twelve hours.”  
“Oh, ta ma de.” He mutters, trying and failing to smooth out his shirt.  
“Ta ma de, indeed. Didn't I tell you to get some proper rest?” Vex asks. Percy shrugs and stretches out his shoulders.  
“Well, technically I did sleep,” He pauses to yawn. “You never specified a bed.” Vex hangs her head with a sigh, then helps him to his feet.  
“Well I am now. Percival, go to your bunk and get some real sleep. You can't work efficiently like this.” He tries to save his pride and walks on his own but finds it far too much effort and leans on her as she leads him.  
“Well, I'm going to have to. I need to run the morning engine diagnostics.” He says, halting their walk by clinging to the engine frame.  
“Didn't you run the diagnostics last night?”  
“Yes, but I expect rather poorly. I had very little energy and was possibly more drunk than I'd like to admit.”  
“Aren't you drunk and tired now?” Vex raises her eyebrow.  
“Well, yes. But if I do two diagnostics in this state it's about equal to one sober one.” He explains, trying to look at the engineer panel. Noticing that he dropped his glasses when he woke up he squints and gets his face far too close to the engine for comfort. Vex rolls her eyes and hauls him away from the engine and out the door.  
“Right. You, bed. Now. As your friend I'm telling you that you need your sishen rest” She orders, walking him down the corridor to his quarters.  
“I don't need you babysitting me.” He says indignantly.  
“Well then. As your superior on this ship I'm ordering you.” She finishes her statement by lightly pushing him through the door to his cot. He catches himself on the doorframe and turns to her.  
“Look after the engine, will you?” He asks. She smiles and responds,  
“Look after yourself. Your engine isn't going anywhere, it can wait. There will be food for you when you wake up, and for god's sake take a shower.” He pulls the collar of his shirt to his nose to smell. His eyebrows fly up and he crinkles his nose, dropping the fabric. Vex laughs at his normally composed face.  
“Honestly, Percy, you don't need to be such a stickler for the rules in the black.”  
“Well, adhering to the rules is the safest and most efficient way of keeping us in the black, and alive for that matter.” He responds. She smiles and pats his chest.  
“Well, one missed diagnostic isn't going to kill us. Now get some sleep.” She lightly pushes him through the door and he falls back with a faint smile. Once the door closes Vex makes her way towards the cockpit. Before she enters the cockpit she enjoys the view through the window. The blue planet of Lazarus is front and center in their view, with it's moon, Mycroft, being partially eclipsed by it. Surrounding the planet is a halo of yellow sunlight. She briefly thinks that the planet and it's moon are just a bit closer than normal, but she concedes that the view is beautiful so she decides to enjoy the rare proximity. She smiles softly then enters the room to get to work.  
“Kiki! Hows my ship doing?” Keyleth swivels around to greet her, as does Scanlan in the chair next to her.   
“Actually it's my ship.” He corrects with a grin. Keyleth swats his arm playfully and turns back around to continue working the console.   
“Ship’s doing well. Most everything is working just as it should.” She announces with an air of false confidence.   
“Most? What do you mean, is something wrong?” Vex asks, leaning over the chair to check some panels.   
“Nothing's wrong really, just not exactly right. It shouldn't be any worry, really.” Keyleth assures. Vex glares at her out of the corner of her eye, not believing her promises.   
“Keyleth was just pointing out all the red flags.” Scanlan says.   
“No, not red flags. Just, pale orange.” Keyleth corrects.   
“Out of the chair, darling.” Vex lightly pushes Keyleth out of the chair to do a proper diagnostics. She flips some switches in order and turns a knob or two, her eyes glued to the diagnostics panel and it's fluctuating readings.   
“Nope. That's definitely red.” Vex mutters.   
“How red? Like, we need to fix this when we land red or, we're all gonna die red?” Keyleth asks, wringing her hands as her voice rises in pitch.  
“There's something very wrong with the power conduits. Power isn't being spread like it should, it's giving too much power is some places and not enough in others, some areas aren't getting power at all.”  
“Well, how bad is that?” Scanlan asks.   
“Not sure, but for now I'm gonna put us on low power mode so that we're not in danger of an outage.” She says, getting to work. She spins some knobs, types a command into the control panel, and flips a lever down. For a moment the lights start to dim, then the ship is filled with the sound of alarms and loud sparks. The ship rocks and the hall leading out of the cockpit is filled with angry light.   
“What the shi dan is happening?” Scanlan yells, doing his best not to fall out of his chair.  
“I don't know!” Vex shouts in response. Alerts pop up on the console faster than she can check them, and before she can discern what is causing the chaos the ship rocks one last time and the light go off entirely. There is a beat of silence before the red emergency lights come on.  
“Are we dead?” Keyleth mutters.  
“No darling, we're alright.” Vex assures, patting her hand.  
“I'd say we're pretty far from alright.” Scanlan says.   
“Well I'm gonna make it alright.” Vex replies, standing up and storming out of the cockpit. On her way to the engine room Percy comes out of his room to meet her, his hair messed up and a red spot on his head.  
“What's happened?” He asks.  
“Not sure. Follow me.” She orders. Scanlan watches them leave from his seat as Keyleth begins to pace. She walks back and forth once or twice, leans over the pilot's chair to check on the ship, shakes her head, and resumes pacing. Vax rushes into the cockpit and interrupts her by shouting,  
“What the cao just happened?”  
“We don't know!” Scanlan shouts back.  
“Where is my sister?” He asks, clinging to the doorframe.  
“She went to the engine with Percy.” Keyleth says. He nods and turns to run after her.  
“Vax, get back here.” Scanlan says, stopping him. Vax turns and says,  
“Excuse me?”  
“I get that you want to make sure that Vex is safe, but the ship is in a bad spot which means none of us are safe. If you want to keep her safe then you have a job to do.” He orders.  
“I'm not a mechanic, what am I supposed to do?”  
“You're the plan guy! Make a gaisi plan!” Scanlan shouts. Vax glares at him and grits his teeth. He sighs and pushes himself off the wall and slides into the pilot's seat. He holds down the speaker button with one hand and holds the voice transmitter with the other.  
“Vax, Keyleth, and Scanlan are in the cockpit. Everyone else report your location.” He orders. He takes his hand off the button and waits for a response.  
“Vex’ahlia and I are in the engine room.” Percy’s voice says. Vax sighs and smiles just a bit.  
“Grog and I are in the stairwell.” Pike reports soon after.  
“Is everyone alright?” Vax asks.  
“Grog hit his head on the stairs, but he’s fine.” Pike informs, sounding a bit concerned.  
“I'm fine buddy, it's just blood.” Grog calls, sounding quiet because he isn't talking into the transmitter.  
“I'm a little banged up, but I've had worse.” Percy says.  
“How’s the ship doing?” Vax asks.  
“It's bad, I can tell you that,” Vex says. “There's been some nasty power fluctuations. We need to figure out what exactly what went wrong before we can set it all right.”   
“There's some weird noises coming from the walls of the ship. I don't want to say gas leak, but…” Pike says.  
“You got that, De Rolo?” Vax asks.  
“Yep, shutting down the gas systems, and any water or fuel pipes just in case.” Percy responds.  
“Don't we need that stuff?” Keyleth asks, leaning over Vax to the transmitter.  
“Considering that at the moment it might kill us in one way or another, I wouldn't say we need it.” Percy responds.  
“Okay guys. Keyleth, do a sweep of the ship, see if anything else is damaged and report it to the engine room. Pike, get Grog to the med bay and get him patched up. Once you're done with him, get to the engine room to see what Percy needs. Scanlan, stay here and tell me if the slightest thing changes.” Vax reaches into a compartment in the side of the console and takes out two transmitters, tossing one to Scanlan.  
“Where are you going?” He asks.  
“To the engine room.”  
“For the job or for Vex?”  
“Both, huen dahn.” He does a mock salute and dashes out the door with Keyleth. She grabs Vax by the face and plants a kiss on his lips before taking a flight of stairs down while he runs down the hall to the engines. 


End file.
